Engineers seen connecting water pipes in Melut County, Upper Nile State. |Courtesy; file photo.

 Authorities in Melut County of Upper Nile State have contracted a Sudanese company to build a safe water supply network to connect all residential areas of the town.

The County Commissioner of Melut Deng John said the project will provide clean drinking water to the town residents.

“We are launching the internal water network project, which we planned in advance to provide clean drinking water to the citizens,” John told the media on Saturday.

The clean water project is said to be at an estimated cost of 1.5 million US dollars, and it is implemented by the Sudanese company, Wales Investment and Services CO-LTD.

Commissioner John says the financial cost of the project was secured with a portion of the 3% share of oil revenues allocated for the communities in the oilfields.

“We are financing the project from 3% of the county’s oil revenues, to ensure that our people get the infrastructure service they need and it is also a sustainable development projects,

“We signed a contract with a company Wales Investment and their role is to connect all the town with water network This project will be followed by other development projects,” said the commissioner.

The length of the water network is approximately 70 kilometers.

According to the Petroleum Management Act, 2% of net oil revenue goes to the producing state while 3% is for development projects in the producing communities.

However, reports say this has not been the case, as relevant government institutions are alleged to have been violating the provisions.

Early this year, an investigation by the Auditor-General found that the oil-producing areas of Upper Nile and Unity States, and Ruweng Administrative Area have been deprived of a sum of $50 million from 2011 to 2020.

The report recommended the use of legal means to recover money illegally appropriated by the country’s finance bodies to individuals and other entities.

Meanwhile, in October last year, the community of Melut County announced that they have finally received a 3 million dollars as their oil share.

For his part, the representative of the contracted company Mohamed Ahmed says the project will be completed in less than a year.

“This project consists of conveying lines, pressure stations and high tanks. The project will cover all parts of the town with pipes of different sizes from 8 inches, 10 inches and 6 inches, and the length of the pipes is estimated at 70 kilometers. The project will be implemented within a period of nine months,” Ahmed explained.

Major towns across the country, including the capital Juba, do not have access to clean water supply network.

In June 2019, the African Development Bank approved a proposal to commit $24.7 million to support South Sudan Strategic Water Supply and Sanitation Improvement Project.

The money was supposed to finance the rehabilitation of approximately 50 kilometers of the Juba water distribution network and related costs, including metering and public water collection outlets.